A/N: This story was written in the middle of season one, with no knowledge
of what would happen in season two. So it's most likely, that none of the
events of season two will be encorporated into this story.
Chapter Three
"Er... Chloe. We're at your house." Said Pete, gently. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts. She hadn't even noticed. Pete had stopped the car. She quickly gather herself together, and snatched her bag up from the seat next to her.
"Oh yeah. Sorry." She said, undoing her seat belt, smiling weakly at him.
Pete frowned and turned to face her. He didn't like to see his friend like this, and couldn't help but try and intervene. "I don't mean to butt in or anything, I'm sort of guessing this is between you and Clark or something. But taking with someone about your troubles can help you Chloe. You know that saying..." Pete told her sympathetically.
"...A trouble shared is a trouble halved." She finished, sarcastically. She tugged to door open with such ferocity that Pete was worried she might tear it off. He was about to joke about it, but thought better of it when he saw her face. "Well, let's just say that sharing is part of this problem."
"So it *is* about Clark? Is it about him liking Lana and hardly noticing you? Is that why you didn't want to say anything to him? He said he likes you, tonight. That's gotta count for something right?" Pete asked. "And anyway, you know Clark. A flying saucer could land in front of him and he'd hardly even notice." He tried to joke.
Chloe scoffed at him. "I know he did. But whether or not Clark likes me is the least of my problems right now." She sighed.
"So it's not about Clark?" he asked, confused.
"No, it's not about Clark, Pete." She insisted, wholeheartedly. "But you know what? I wish it was. It would be simpler. I know you're just trying to be a good friend, and I appreciate it. But this is something I have to sort out myself. So I'm asking you to drop it, okay?"
His frown deepened for a few moments as he paused. "Ok Chloe," he finally agreed. "Just take care and I'll see you tomorrow."
Chloe nodded and slipped out of the car. He started it and waved, as she smiled bravely at him then hurriedly disappeared into her house.
As she entered her house she slammed the door angrily. Why couldn't she have been nice to Clark? Why did she have to bite his head off? He must hate her right now. Well, most people would. But this was Clark. He forgave everyone. Well, it seemed that way. So she was almost certain he would forgive her, for her outburst. Yet again. She was lucky to have him as a friend. She could only hope she would be lucky enough to have him as more than a friend some day. She wanted to be seen as Chloe, the girl. Because as much as she was one of Clark's best friend she was also a girl. Something she felt Clark regularly overlooked, despite his "liking" her. And Pete! She almost bit his head off too. She knew they were both only trying to help, but they weren't. They were just making matters worse for her. Making her feel guilty for hiding the truth from them. Making her feel guilty for having secrets of her own, when she crusaded to uncover other peoples secrets in Smallville and expose them on her wall.
She lent against the wall and breathed heavily, for the first time having doubts about her wall. How must people feel about her having pictures of their friends or relatives on her wall? Oh god, Lana. She felt her stomach turn. How must she feel? She was up there on her wall, with three headed calf, the creature from crater lake and her own articles about heat sucking meteor rock mutants and shape-shifting teenage girls. How must she feel? Chloe felt utter contempt for herself, at that moment. Is this what the truth cost you? She knew being a reporter wasn't going to be easy, she knew it involved tough choices. But could she really handle it? So far her choices, although not easy, had been what she deemed to be the right one. She'd saved Clark's adoption records, but not after a long and tiring battle with her emotions, morals and journalistic integrity, because she honestly felt as though it was the right thing to do. She'd put the Time magazine cover on her wall because it was related to the meteor shower, but did it really need to be up there at the cost of hurting another persons feelings? As a reporter could she afford to put others feelings before a story? If she didn't did that make her a bad person? She shook her head violently. Too many questions. Too many things she couldn't cope with right now. She was just a teenager, she shouldn't have to be dealing with such moral issues. But things had happened that had made her think twice. She wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her, rather shakey, hand and smoothed back her hair from her face.
"Chloe, is that you? Come in here for a minute. I've got a surprise for you..." called her father.
She took a few gulps of air and sighed uncertainly, as she straightened up and slipped off her boots. She hung her coat up on a hook by the door, stabilising herself by placing a hand on the wall. She was too emotionally drained to even be curious about her dad's surprise. In fact, she was even tempted to tell him that she just wanted to go to bed and she'd have a look tomorrow morning. But she knew he'd only protest.
"Ok dad. I'll be there in a second." She replied, reluctantly. She rolled her eyes. It was probably a new gadget of some sort. A new electronic organiser, or something. He was obsessed with electronic gadgets and seemed to buy a new one every week. The Sullivan household would be useless without electricity. She had to smile, when she recalled a day last winter when the whole town had lost power, and due to her dad's gadgets, they'd never brought a normal, hand-held can opener. Leaving her and her father with nothing but the left over pasta and chicken from dinner the night before, to eat that day.
As she entered the room the sight she saw before her made her grimace. She started to turn away. She did not need this. Not today. Not now. Not ever. Her father saw her move and placed his hands on her shoulder in a attempt to be comforting and to force her to turn around and face what she had been dreading.
"Chloe, honey! It's wonderful to see you!" beamed her mother, walking up to her and embracing her tightly. "We were so excited about our trip down to Smallville we decided to get here a week early. Are you surprised?"
"That's one way to put it." Chloe gulped, nervously. She wriggled free of her Mom's hug and glared accusingly at the other person in the room, who also glared back at her.
"What? It's not like I wanted to come to this cow town." Said a girl, with deep disgust. She was dressed in strappy blue sandals, a short, electric blue, dress, with her blonde hair swept out of her eyes with silver butterfly clips. She had her hands on her hips and her chin tilted, haughtily.
"Oh, and it's nice to see you too Caitlyn." Chloe retorted, sarcastically.
Caitlyn made a noise that sounded like growl and the two identical Sullivan's turned their backs on each other. Neither willing to acknowledge the others presence any further.
"I'm going to bed." Chloe announced to her dad, shortly, focusing on him. Ignoring her sister nearby. "I don't have to share with *her*, do I?"
Gabe and Maggie Sullivan looked at each other uneasily. Reuniting the girls was going to be more of an uphill battle than they had first thought. Despite the time apart, they still hated each other, just as fiercely as before, maybe even more so. So much for trying to get them to resolve their differences.
"No, your Mom and Caitlyn are staying in the guestroom." Replied Gabe, his voice steely and cold.
Chloe stared at her feet, unhappily. Profoundly aware of her dad's disappointment in her. "Good." She replied, quietly. Her mother smiled warmly at her, she returned the smile, barely. "It's great to see you, Mom. I've missed you. We'll catch up tomorrow?" she asked, her voice almost an inaudible whisper.
"Tomorrow." Reassured her Mom. They hugged again and Maggie kissed Chloe on the forehead. Behind her Caitlyn pulled a childish face at Chloe. Her eyes narrowed at her, Caitlyn rolled her eyes, and grinned happily. Satisfied that she had ruined the moment, before she turned and walked off into the kitchen, wrapping her arm around Gabe. Completely oblivious, her mother continued. "Sleep tight, mind the..."
"...bed bugs don't bite." Finished Chloe, as her Mom released her from the hug. "Mom! You've been saying that to me since pre-school, I'm at High school now."
"I know. You and Cait have both grown up so quickly. I forget you're not my little girls anymore..." she sighed sadly.
Chloe stiffened at the mention of her sister's name. "Bye." she said, concisely, as she rushed up to her room. She slammed the door shut and wept as she lent against it, sliding to a sitting position. Why, of all the times they could have visited before, did they have to visit now? She knew she knew she shouldn't blame her Mom, but yet she did. Why couldn't she have left Cai... She couldn't even bring herself to think her name.
She placed her head on her knees and let her tears soak into her cotton pants. Life just wasn't fair. She got to her feet and wiped the tears away with her sleeve. She'd cried too much already today. She ensured the door was closed firmly. She needed her own space right now. It was bad enough she had to share a face with her sister. She didn't want to have to share a room. Deciding that she needing something to distract her, Chloe looked around her room, on her desk sat her laptop. The Torch. When she thought of the paper everything else didn't seem to matter to her as much, she didn't mind as much that Clark seemed to forever have his eye on Lana, rather than her. Although, when he'd said he liked her at the movies today, her heart had skipped a beat. But he'd never given her any indication of this before, so he'd probably said it just to try and prove Pete wrong. Whatever his reasons were for saying it, she couldn't deal with it right now.
The paper was hers. It was how she kept Clark from drifting out of her life, completely. Except, of course, for those few gut-renching days when she'd been fired from the paper. It had felt that someone had stabbed her in the stomach. Then, with Kwan handing the paper over to Lana, and Clark supporting her, it had felt as though Clark was twisting it, digging it deeper into her flesh. The paper really was part of her identity, when people thought about The Torch, they thought 'Chloe Sullivan', one was synonymous with the other. She liked that. It just happened to have the added perk of hanging out with Clark, as she did it.
She wished she knew how Clark felt about The Torch. Sometimes he seemed as happy and interested in it as she was, but at other times he appeared to be uneasy and as if he were doing it out of guilt. She switched on her laptop.
'Clark Kent is one mystery I doubt I'll ever solve,' she thought, as she tapped away on her keyboard. 'A report on the bake sale to raise money for new cheerleading uniforms! When will the fun end?' mused Chloe, sarcastically.
She continued typing. She knew she had to take the rough with the smooth. Pretty soon a story would come along that would be of interest to her. Tears stung her eyes as her thoughts turned to her wall again. But she shut out her emotions. At the moment it wasn't a question of what was morally right. It was about the truth. Strange things just seemed to happen in Smallville. She couldn't let herself sit back and ignore them, like everyone else. It was amazing how oblivious people could be when they didn't want to except the reality given to them. The wait for a new story wouldn't be long. Until then, if she had to report on bake sales, school and town activities, then that is what she would do. And with as much enthusiasm as she'd report on the stories that she enjoyed writing. It was only professional. If she was reporting on these events she should report on them whole-heartedly.
She got her drive for perfection from her Mom. She had a great career as lawyer at LuthorCorp in Metropolis. Chloe had always, secretly, hoped that Lex would get her transferred to Smallville by some means. But what would she do here? As Lex had once pointed out to her and Clark, in passing, the Smallville plant was commonly referred to, jokingly, as 'the crap factory' in LuthorCorp circles. She couldn't picture her Mom finding enough employment here. Besides, if she did move here then so would Caitlyn, who was a part of her life she liked to imagine didn't exist. Even though in the back of her head she knew it did. All the evidence she'd ever need was reflected back to her in a mirror.
There was a light knock on the door, Chloe closed down her laptop and lay down on her front on her bed. She stared at the colourful stickers she had stuck on her headboard, most of them from places in Metropolis and dentist visits from years past. They were faded, old and tatty. She knew she should get rid of them really. They were childish, and unsophisticated for a teenager like her. Not that a poster of a bubblegum boyband would be any better, of course. But it would be more appropriate for a teenager. She reached towards a sticker and started to peel it away.
"What?" she called, ripping the sticker into tiny pieces with her fingers, scattering it over her pillow.
"Chloe?" asked her Mom, softly. "Can I come in?"
Chloe frowned, deeply tempted to answer 'no' to her Mom. But instead she turned onto her side to direct her frown at the wall. "I guess. If that's really what you want." Chloe replied, with a sigh.
She heard the door click as her mother opened it, she felt a cool breeze waft in as the door swished over the carpet. The end of her mattress sank as her Mom sat down. She stroked her hair gently and as Chloe turned round, she was smiling down at her sweetly. But her expression was soon one of concern.
"What's wrong Mom?" she asked, a little worriedly. Why had her mother become serious all of a sudden?
"Chloe, sweetie. I want to talk about you and Caitlyn. I'm worried about you both. This isn't good for anyone, and it's been going on for too long now. Can you even remember why you started to fight anyway? I want you two to sort this out this summer. If not for yourselves then do it for me. It tears me up inside to see you fighting. You're almost adults now. I'd appreciate it if you could sort it out."
Chloe turned away, hugging her pillow tightly. "She started it."
Her mothers voice grew harsher. "I don't care who started it. I've told Caitlyn the same as I've told you. I want this sorted out. Neither of you are leaving Smallville until you do."
Chloe didn't reply. Those words were final. There was no use arguing. They'd have to work it out, whether they wanted to or not.
***
Chapter Three
"Er... Chloe. We're at your house." Said Pete, gently. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts. She hadn't even noticed. Pete had stopped the car. She quickly gather herself together, and snatched her bag up from the seat next to her.
"Oh yeah. Sorry." She said, undoing her seat belt, smiling weakly at him.
Pete frowned and turned to face her. He didn't like to see his friend like this, and couldn't help but try and intervene. "I don't mean to butt in or anything, I'm sort of guessing this is between you and Clark or something. But taking with someone about your troubles can help you Chloe. You know that saying..." Pete told her sympathetically.
"...A trouble shared is a trouble halved." She finished, sarcastically. She tugged to door open with such ferocity that Pete was worried she might tear it off. He was about to joke about it, but thought better of it when he saw her face. "Well, let's just say that sharing is part of this problem."
"So it *is* about Clark? Is it about him liking Lana and hardly noticing you? Is that why you didn't want to say anything to him? He said he likes you, tonight. That's gotta count for something right?" Pete asked. "And anyway, you know Clark. A flying saucer could land in front of him and he'd hardly even notice." He tried to joke.
Chloe scoffed at him. "I know he did. But whether or not Clark likes me is the least of my problems right now." She sighed.
"So it's not about Clark?" he asked, confused.
"No, it's not about Clark, Pete." She insisted, wholeheartedly. "But you know what? I wish it was. It would be simpler. I know you're just trying to be a good friend, and I appreciate it. But this is something I have to sort out myself. So I'm asking you to drop it, okay?"
His frown deepened for a few moments as he paused. "Ok Chloe," he finally agreed. "Just take care and I'll see you tomorrow."
Chloe nodded and slipped out of the car. He started it and waved, as she smiled bravely at him then hurriedly disappeared into her house.
As she entered her house she slammed the door angrily. Why couldn't she have been nice to Clark? Why did she have to bite his head off? He must hate her right now. Well, most people would. But this was Clark. He forgave everyone. Well, it seemed that way. So she was almost certain he would forgive her, for her outburst. Yet again. She was lucky to have him as a friend. She could only hope she would be lucky enough to have him as more than a friend some day. She wanted to be seen as Chloe, the girl. Because as much as she was one of Clark's best friend she was also a girl. Something she felt Clark regularly overlooked, despite his "liking" her. And Pete! She almost bit his head off too. She knew they were both only trying to help, but they weren't. They were just making matters worse for her. Making her feel guilty for hiding the truth from them. Making her feel guilty for having secrets of her own, when she crusaded to uncover other peoples secrets in Smallville and expose them on her wall.
She lent against the wall and breathed heavily, for the first time having doubts about her wall. How must people feel about her having pictures of their friends or relatives on her wall? Oh god, Lana. She felt her stomach turn. How must she feel? She was up there on her wall, with three headed calf, the creature from crater lake and her own articles about heat sucking meteor rock mutants and shape-shifting teenage girls. How must she feel? Chloe felt utter contempt for herself, at that moment. Is this what the truth cost you? She knew being a reporter wasn't going to be easy, she knew it involved tough choices. But could she really handle it? So far her choices, although not easy, had been what she deemed to be the right one. She'd saved Clark's adoption records, but not after a long and tiring battle with her emotions, morals and journalistic integrity, because she honestly felt as though it was the right thing to do. She'd put the Time magazine cover on her wall because it was related to the meteor shower, but did it really need to be up there at the cost of hurting another persons feelings? As a reporter could she afford to put others feelings before a story? If she didn't did that make her a bad person? She shook her head violently. Too many questions. Too many things she couldn't cope with right now. She was just a teenager, she shouldn't have to be dealing with such moral issues. But things had happened that had made her think twice. She wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her, rather shakey, hand and smoothed back her hair from her face.
"Chloe, is that you? Come in here for a minute. I've got a surprise for you..." called her father.
She took a few gulps of air and sighed uncertainly, as she straightened up and slipped off her boots. She hung her coat up on a hook by the door, stabilising herself by placing a hand on the wall. She was too emotionally drained to even be curious about her dad's surprise. In fact, she was even tempted to tell him that she just wanted to go to bed and she'd have a look tomorrow morning. But she knew he'd only protest.
"Ok dad. I'll be there in a second." She replied, reluctantly. She rolled her eyes. It was probably a new gadget of some sort. A new electronic organiser, or something. He was obsessed with electronic gadgets and seemed to buy a new one every week. The Sullivan household would be useless without electricity. She had to smile, when she recalled a day last winter when the whole town had lost power, and due to her dad's gadgets, they'd never brought a normal, hand-held can opener. Leaving her and her father with nothing but the left over pasta and chicken from dinner the night before, to eat that day.
As she entered the room the sight she saw before her made her grimace. She started to turn away. She did not need this. Not today. Not now. Not ever. Her father saw her move and placed his hands on her shoulder in a attempt to be comforting and to force her to turn around and face what she had been dreading.
"Chloe, honey! It's wonderful to see you!" beamed her mother, walking up to her and embracing her tightly. "We were so excited about our trip down to Smallville we decided to get here a week early. Are you surprised?"
"That's one way to put it." Chloe gulped, nervously. She wriggled free of her Mom's hug and glared accusingly at the other person in the room, who also glared back at her.
"What? It's not like I wanted to come to this cow town." Said a girl, with deep disgust. She was dressed in strappy blue sandals, a short, electric blue, dress, with her blonde hair swept out of her eyes with silver butterfly clips. She had her hands on her hips and her chin tilted, haughtily.
"Oh, and it's nice to see you too Caitlyn." Chloe retorted, sarcastically.
Caitlyn made a noise that sounded like growl and the two identical Sullivan's turned their backs on each other. Neither willing to acknowledge the others presence any further.
"I'm going to bed." Chloe announced to her dad, shortly, focusing on him. Ignoring her sister nearby. "I don't have to share with *her*, do I?"
Gabe and Maggie Sullivan looked at each other uneasily. Reuniting the girls was going to be more of an uphill battle than they had first thought. Despite the time apart, they still hated each other, just as fiercely as before, maybe even more so. So much for trying to get them to resolve their differences.
"No, your Mom and Caitlyn are staying in the guestroom." Replied Gabe, his voice steely and cold.
Chloe stared at her feet, unhappily. Profoundly aware of her dad's disappointment in her. "Good." She replied, quietly. Her mother smiled warmly at her, she returned the smile, barely. "It's great to see you, Mom. I've missed you. We'll catch up tomorrow?" she asked, her voice almost an inaudible whisper.
"Tomorrow." Reassured her Mom. They hugged again and Maggie kissed Chloe on the forehead. Behind her Caitlyn pulled a childish face at Chloe. Her eyes narrowed at her, Caitlyn rolled her eyes, and grinned happily. Satisfied that she had ruined the moment, before she turned and walked off into the kitchen, wrapping her arm around Gabe. Completely oblivious, her mother continued. "Sleep tight, mind the..."
"...bed bugs don't bite." Finished Chloe, as her Mom released her from the hug. "Mom! You've been saying that to me since pre-school, I'm at High school now."
"I know. You and Cait have both grown up so quickly. I forget you're not my little girls anymore..." she sighed sadly.
Chloe stiffened at the mention of her sister's name. "Bye." she said, concisely, as she rushed up to her room. She slammed the door shut and wept as she lent against it, sliding to a sitting position. Why, of all the times they could have visited before, did they have to visit now? She knew she knew she shouldn't blame her Mom, but yet she did. Why couldn't she have left Cai... She couldn't even bring herself to think her name.
She placed her head on her knees and let her tears soak into her cotton pants. Life just wasn't fair. She got to her feet and wiped the tears away with her sleeve. She'd cried too much already today. She ensured the door was closed firmly. She needed her own space right now. It was bad enough she had to share a face with her sister. She didn't want to have to share a room. Deciding that she needing something to distract her, Chloe looked around her room, on her desk sat her laptop. The Torch. When she thought of the paper everything else didn't seem to matter to her as much, she didn't mind as much that Clark seemed to forever have his eye on Lana, rather than her. Although, when he'd said he liked her at the movies today, her heart had skipped a beat. But he'd never given her any indication of this before, so he'd probably said it just to try and prove Pete wrong. Whatever his reasons were for saying it, she couldn't deal with it right now.
The paper was hers. It was how she kept Clark from drifting out of her life, completely. Except, of course, for those few gut-renching days when she'd been fired from the paper. It had felt that someone had stabbed her in the stomach. Then, with Kwan handing the paper over to Lana, and Clark supporting her, it had felt as though Clark was twisting it, digging it deeper into her flesh. The paper really was part of her identity, when people thought about The Torch, they thought 'Chloe Sullivan', one was synonymous with the other. She liked that. It just happened to have the added perk of hanging out with Clark, as she did it.
She wished she knew how Clark felt about The Torch. Sometimes he seemed as happy and interested in it as she was, but at other times he appeared to be uneasy and as if he were doing it out of guilt. She switched on her laptop.
'Clark Kent is one mystery I doubt I'll ever solve,' she thought, as she tapped away on her keyboard. 'A report on the bake sale to raise money for new cheerleading uniforms! When will the fun end?' mused Chloe, sarcastically.
She continued typing. She knew she had to take the rough with the smooth. Pretty soon a story would come along that would be of interest to her. Tears stung her eyes as her thoughts turned to her wall again. But she shut out her emotions. At the moment it wasn't a question of what was morally right. It was about the truth. Strange things just seemed to happen in Smallville. She couldn't let herself sit back and ignore them, like everyone else. It was amazing how oblivious people could be when they didn't want to except the reality given to them. The wait for a new story wouldn't be long. Until then, if she had to report on bake sales, school and town activities, then that is what she would do. And with as much enthusiasm as she'd report on the stories that she enjoyed writing. It was only professional. If she was reporting on these events she should report on them whole-heartedly.
She got her drive for perfection from her Mom. She had a great career as lawyer at LuthorCorp in Metropolis. Chloe had always, secretly, hoped that Lex would get her transferred to Smallville by some means. But what would she do here? As Lex had once pointed out to her and Clark, in passing, the Smallville plant was commonly referred to, jokingly, as 'the crap factory' in LuthorCorp circles. She couldn't picture her Mom finding enough employment here. Besides, if she did move here then so would Caitlyn, who was a part of her life she liked to imagine didn't exist. Even though in the back of her head she knew it did. All the evidence she'd ever need was reflected back to her in a mirror.
There was a light knock on the door, Chloe closed down her laptop and lay down on her front on her bed. She stared at the colourful stickers she had stuck on her headboard, most of them from places in Metropolis and dentist visits from years past. They were faded, old and tatty. She knew she should get rid of them really. They were childish, and unsophisticated for a teenager like her. Not that a poster of a bubblegum boyband would be any better, of course. But it would be more appropriate for a teenager. She reached towards a sticker and started to peel it away.
"What?" she called, ripping the sticker into tiny pieces with her fingers, scattering it over her pillow.
"Chloe?" asked her Mom, softly. "Can I come in?"
Chloe frowned, deeply tempted to answer 'no' to her Mom. But instead she turned onto her side to direct her frown at the wall. "I guess. If that's really what you want." Chloe replied, with a sigh.
She heard the door click as her mother opened it, she felt a cool breeze waft in as the door swished over the carpet. The end of her mattress sank as her Mom sat down. She stroked her hair gently and as Chloe turned round, she was smiling down at her sweetly. But her expression was soon one of concern.
"What's wrong Mom?" she asked, a little worriedly. Why had her mother become serious all of a sudden?
"Chloe, sweetie. I want to talk about you and Caitlyn. I'm worried about you both. This isn't good for anyone, and it's been going on for too long now. Can you even remember why you started to fight anyway? I want you two to sort this out this summer. If not for yourselves then do it for me. It tears me up inside to see you fighting. You're almost adults now. I'd appreciate it if you could sort it out."
Chloe turned away, hugging her pillow tightly. "She started it."
Her mothers voice grew harsher. "I don't care who started it. I've told Caitlyn the same as I've told you. I want this sorted out. Neither of you are leaving Smallville until you do."
Chloe didn't reply. Those words were final. There was no use arguing. They'd have to work it out, whether they wanted to or not.
***